We are pleased to announce the
Commencement Exercises of
Scott Sanders Merkley
and
Brandee Marie Merkley
on April 10, 2010
at 9:00 a.m.
in the Hart Auditorium
Brigham Young University - Idaho
Rexburg, Idaho

Scott and Brandee will be participating in the Commencement Choir

The Convocation Exercises for
Scott and Brandee
are on Firday April 9, 2010
Brigham Young University - Idaho
Rexburg, Idaho

(Only Commencement is a ticketed event, anyone can come to the convocation!)

Soon to be: The Great Move

Well, we are coming to the end of the semester up here in Rexburg. Scott and I are graduating this semester. We are hurriedly trying to finish all of our course work without going crazy and still eating full meals at the appropriate times. This semester has been fun. We have been snowboarding a couple times, we have been to some great movies, and have made some yummy food.

We are anticipating moving down to Provo. SCOTT GOT INTO BYU!! It is so exciting. We can't wait to go to football games and enjoy being on such a big campus. I have been placed for my student teaching in the Jordan School District and am currently working on getting my student teaching to be more of an internship. This means that I would actually be the teacher, given at least 5 classes and a "good luck" from my supervisor. This would work out much better for us I think.

Next semester, I will have to take two classes. One that the school scheduled wrong that I had to just go with the flow, and the other because I didn't want to take such a hard class this semester. Scott will go back to full-time with his internship-turned-job. It will be a lazy summer though.

Dallin, Dallin

While dancing to the Beach Boys on Just Dance on Wii, my brother Dallin was singing all the lyrics and getting them wrong. We asked him why, when they were scrolling on the TV. He said he likes to mix them up because they are odd. Then he said that if they had Crossing USA he would like that better because he knows all the words to that one. We all looked at him, and my dad said, "Its Surfin USA!" After some arguing, Dallin finally says: "Why is it Surfin USA, you can't surf on land..you would have to be Chuck Norris!!

Counting today there are 13 days until we are in NORTH CAROLINA!

Cute pictures

Thanks to my friend Annelise, we have some wonderful pictures that are not wedding pictures, random camping pictures, or our amateur picture taking.

Here is the link to her wonderful pictures. Enjoy!

The Retreat Part 2

So when we left off, we were still lost. Good news-we found our way to the hotel-but not without some more laughs. We had to turn onto a couple of funny named roads. Arapahoe for example (a-wrap-a-hoe) and what I thought was pronounce Yo-si-might. Turns out it is something like Yo-sim-mitty. Oh well. Brittany made fun of me for like half an hour. "Is she being serious right now? Do you really pronounce it like that?" Good thing she had went to the bathroom when we stopped to get directions from that bar.
So we finally get to the hotel and low and behold, we have rooms. So, I went up to my room, tried to be as quiet as I could. The lady at the front desk told us that we were in rooms that only had one other person in them. And when I got up to my room, that is what it looked like. I got all ready for bed, and walked into the bedroom half of the hotel room--and both beds are occupied. Great. I get to pull out the couch, and it was horrible, trying to sleep on a pull out couch with too much room. I had to angle the pillows around me so that it seemed like it was just more than me in that bed.
The next morning, I met up with Brittany and heard her story. She is on the fourth floor (I was on the 8th) and after she had hauled all of her stuff up there and was ready to open the door--the little electronic thing was flashing not red and not green but yellow (when I say electronic thing, I mean the thingy that you put your key in and it opens the door...)
Well, she had to go all the way back downstairs, and tell the lady at the front desk. The conversation from the hotel attendant to Brittany's roommate kinda went like this:
"Hi, I'm calling to let you know that your roommate is here, and oops! You locked the dead bolt on your door! Can you kindly get up and let her in?"
"My roommate? What are you talking about? I'm married!"
"No, your roommate, for the conference?"
"I don't have a roommate, I'm married!"
This proceeded for about 5 minutes, until the roommate finally woke up, and was convinced that her roommate was here. And all this at 4:00 in the morning.

Brandee's Trip to Denver for Jan Harris Area Mary Kay Retreat PART 1=The drive---its a hoot

Okay, well the day started off okay...I guess. I still went to two of my three classes, and thought about showing up at the third one to sign the attendance and leave--but decided I should just go. I met up with Scott who was driving my friend and I to Idaho Falls to pick up another girl, then drive on to Utah. While I was in class, Scott had been packing--and I hadn't cleaned the house before we left, so of course, it stayed a mess. I picked up my friend Brittany, and we went on to IF to pick up Melissa. This first part of the drive was really boring.....
The more interesting part begins when we kick Scott out of the car in Tridell, spent all of ten minutes there, then got back on the road to Denver. It is dark by now at about 7:30 when we were leaving the tiny town of Vernal.
As, most of those reading this know, Dinosaur is the first town in Colorado one comes to on hwy 40, before the turn onto 64, and they also know the speed limit drops to 30 mph. I however, did not know that and when in doubt, in North Carolina, one drives 55. I was driving 55, and upon seeing the sign for 30, I began to slow down. As soon as I saw the sign, the pretty blue and red and white lights came on behind me. The officer comes to my window after making me sit there for about 10 minutes, and tells me he clocked me at 54. I said, "I know officer, I was going 55. Until I saw the sign and began to slow down." He said, "Well, it is 30 through here, and I have never not given anyone a ticket for driving that fast. License and registration please." I am thinking, are you kidding me?! I just told him that I was sorry, I admitted guilt...I could see the sign that said 30 in my rear view mirror. Melissa and Brittany were shocked too--until he came and told me how much he was going to charge me= $243! I was shocked. I couldn't even say anything. The cop explained to me the procedure, and Brittany had to say, "Okay, thanks officer." Because I had not spoken yet. Getting back on the road again, we had not even gone a quarter of a mile, and the speed limit went back up to 60. LAME.

Well, the rest was pretty good. We did not miss any turns, until we reached the outskirts of Denver. Because of my ticket, we had added a little extra time, and it was around 12:30 in the morning. I knew from the directions that we were supposed to get off on something that had a 6 in it and upon seeing the road that said hwy 6, I took it, not knowing it meant 6th Ave in downtown Denver to merge to hwy 25. This detour cost us an hour in what I am sure is beautiful countryside. There was a really turny part in the road and it dropped down to about 40 mph, and the line of cars got kind of tight, becuase I was try to going 40 and the person in front of me was not, I was pretty close on his tail, and he flipped me the bird...oh well.

Well, we finally got off the highway and saw some Denver lights, and went where we thought we were supposed to go. Brittany kept getting mad becuase the map quest maps we had were not very good. They had no major roads, and there was no help for where we were. So, we had the brillant idea of calling the hotel. So Brittany calls the hotel and asks how to get to where they are from where we are. (Keep in mind we are trying to find hwy 25) So, the hotel person said "well, just find 25." "That is what we are looking for." "Well, where are you again?" "We are on hwy 6." "Oh, I have no idea where that is." "Thanks anyway. (hung up). Brandee, it is 1:40 in the morning, the gas stations are closed our only chance of finding directions is getting to a bar. So lets go."

So Melissa is asleep by now, in fact she missed the entire detour, and when we pulled into the bar, she woke up--kinda. Brittany runs in and Mellisa says from the back seat, "Should I go in with her?" I said, "I would feel more comfortable if you would." "Okay." Then she just sits there. So, I wait a few minutes and say, "I'm gonna go and check on Brittany, you just stay here." "Okay." With no movement, Melissa stares off into space--I don't think she was awake yet.

Well, the bouncer at the bar gave us perfect directions, but as we got back onto a road that we had been wandering on, Brittany was like, "I wish we had a better map, or an atlas or something, this is driving me crazy!"

This is when I brilliantly reach behind the back of her seat, and pull out a big red atlas of all the states, and state, "Oh, you mean like this one?"